Helping Baby Boomers to continue to earn income, as long as they want

Television

08/10/2017

Psychologist Jean M. Twenge has developed a brandname and influence on mental health issues.

She has done that by researching the unique psychological challenges generations are encountering.

Decrying the supposed shortcomings of a generation is a common formula for getting, holding and growing attention.

Baby Boomers remember well how we were positioned and packaged as doomed because of the new medium of television. We would lose our ability to read. No college would accept us.

Later, we were written off as beyond salvation because of the counterculture movement.

Twenge's latest focus is what she calls the iGen. Members have been born between 1995 and 2012. And what is allegedly doing them in is their intense relationship with the smartphone. That technology provides the coordinates for their existence.

Earlier, Twenge targeted the Millennial gen as narcissistic. They perceived the world through the lens of entitlement. Blame the self-esteem movement.

Indeed, Twenge might be right in fingering the special difficulties different generations encounter. The most recent is the supposed damage the iGeners are inflicting upon themselves because of the smartphone. Here is Twenge's popular article published in The Atlantic on that.

She sternly warns that iGeners are on the brink of a mental illness crisis. Gosh, why can't they be like the Silent or the Greatest Generation had been: perfect in every way. So often my parents told me that as I watched too much TV and took to the streets protesting the Viet Nam War.

But, somehow we so-called creatures damaged by mediums or movements manage to live our lives.

We pay taxes.

We help others in crisis. Those include homeless animals.

And we bounce back from the clinical depression Twenge frequently highlights.

I had a whopper of a depression in 2003. (Here is that sad story, which has had more than a million downloads.) But, hey, look at me now. At age 72, I continue to ghostwrite for brandnames in professional services.

Given all that, one anticipates iGen to do no worse. And because of their comfort with digital technology, they may do better.

08/09/2017

"You took the leap out of New York careerist addiction into a five-day detox traveling across the country. Southwestern Arizona was your halfway house. For three years. Now, Eastern Ohio is your three-quarter house."

Then she gave me that knowing smug smile radiated by those in 12-step programs. She added:

"Soon enough you will be in a 'whole' house, if you want that."

Indeed, the lexicon for the language of addiction and recovery includes phrases like "having to want 'it'" and more.

Not that this compressing a life into the parameters of addiction is anything new.

Way back in the days when the best and brightest chose graduate school versus jobs, classmates in all sorts of programs confessed addictive tendencies. That was the late 1960s.

Well, the addictions were mighty tame. They ranged from chocolate, especially before tests, to too much television viewing (we were Baby Boomers and that was our medium.)

But as 12-step programs caught fire so did framing whatever in terms of a dark disease. With the opioid crisis, there's no exit from that linguistic simplification. It is assumed: Everyone is addicted to something or someone. And that everyone must be cured.

A lawyer out to create a brandname might put together a class action lawsuit. The plaintiff class, of which I would be a member, could contend that superimposing the categories of addictions on us has become a public nuisance.

The lawsuit can seek injunction relief. The language of addiction would be banned outside of formal medical treatment. Nonono, I don't want to hear how you can't stop snorting carbs. Post-litigation, there will be none of that.

08/03/2017

That's how Linda Tripp-Rousch describes the former BFF she ratted out.

The term is a throwback to the days when the right assumed they dominated cultural values.

Years ago, I ghostwrote articles for a conservative who not only leveraged that phrase. In-person he would refer to the then-current mores as a "cesspool." Internally, I rolled my eyes. Even then, it all seemed pretty white-old-man.

Now, of course, the right has become clown alley. Their talk on values triggers amusement.

The two women - one right, one left - are back on the radar because Amazon Studios is doing a film titled "Linda and Monica." Here are the details from the New York Post.

One wonders, though, if there is a market for such a movie?

Do we really care much any more about the Clinton Dynasty?

In addition, it is old stuff that Bill Clinton was an alleged womanizer. When conseravatie Matt Drudge first broke The Intern Story it was of great interest. The right ran with it. A good times was had by all, except Clinton who made a fool of himself doing lawyertalk about not having "'sex' with that woman."

Now we are only all ears about who will be booted next from the White House. President Donald Trump will be vacationing this month. Watchers predict that will give him the time to reflect carefully on doing a clean sweep of staff.

07/31/2017

Well, "Sunday Night," hosted by Megyn Kelly, came back from the dead last night.

It frontloaded a feature on the incredible shrinking airline seat. I thought that was old news. But viewers were interested enough to stick with the rest of the show.

The stickiness gave "Sunday Night" time to live one more hour before being cancelled after only being on-the-air eight times. The original plan was for 10 times.

Kelly claims she will be back. That optimistic spin has characterized this disappointment. Kelly was supposed to be such a catch for NBC.

The bounce last night was to 3.51 million viewers. That puts it back where it had been on June 18. A week before, the ratings cratered to 2.85 million. That was partly because it had been knocked out of its usual 7:00 P.M. slot. The NASCAR race was featured.

Now it's onto the 9:00 A.M. slot for Kelly. Her "Megyn Kelly Today" will be done before a live audience.

Calling the show that was probably a mistake. The stench from the rotting branding of "Sunday Night" could drift into "Today." If the ratings are lousy, expect heads to roll. Among them could be Kelly's. She will be bought out of her contract or perhaps parachuted in to do interviews of celebrities arriving on some red carpet somewhere.

Sad to think about, isn't it.

We also have to recall that other Fox refugee from the Roger Ailes era - legal commentator Greta Van Susteren. She didn't last long at MSNBC. Yes, she got the boot.

Ailes had created a unique media environment at Fox News. Many such as Kelly and Van Susteren thrived in it.

So did consultants such as Bob Dilenschneider who had been Ailes' personal public relations representative. They looked a bit like twins separated at birth.

One wonders if Dilenschneider was also a "Friend of Roger." Those on that buddy list received a nice stipend every month from Fox News.

But everything changes.

Fox News seems distracted by the fallout after the House of Ailes collapsed.

I don't read much in the media about Dilenschneider.

That lost generation, of course, seems to also include Kelly and Van Susteren.

Reflection: Kelly has a law degree. She may have the option of returning to being an associate at Jones Day law firm.

Kelly's low ratings in the evening don't bode well for the morning. Her most recent show had a record low of 2.71 million viewers. Her last show, after will represent a wrap after only 8 episodes, will be tomorrow.

In addition, Kelly comes up against competition from the Internet.

The morning "Today" habit is being replaced by accessing the Internet on mobile or the wider screen of desktop. Lately, that's where we can surf to be briefed on the night's tweet storms and if North Korea has bombed us.

On the same device, we also check who's been contacting us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, SKYPE and old-line email (which is expected to go the way of the landline phone.)

So, we wonder if Kelly, who seems exactly the wrong fit for morning television, will be the beginning of the end of "Today."

Everything changes.

Couric, for instance, is leaving being Yahoo's global news anchor. She will just swing by Oath, which is Verizon's version of Yahoo, for projects now and then.

Instead her focus will be documentaries made by her own shop with National Geographic. Those of us who caught "Gender Revolution" were impressed with the depth of the approach. The focus is on when the body we are born with and the sexual/social identity don't align.

There are supermarket tabloids which predict that Kelly will take over the "Today" franchise. That Matt Lauer is out. That employees are in high angst.

But, more likely the future of "Today" is being shaped by the habits of digitalettes. Those include all generations, not just Millennials and Gen Zers. They could not include "Today" in their morning surfing. That could be the end of morning television, as we have known it.

07/19/2017

They sacrifice personal relationships and actually put their lives on the line to catch the bad guys.

Sure, they have flaws. For instance, Dr. Spencer Reid is low in Emotional Intelligence (EI). But, overall, they represent the best of the human species.

That's the fiction.

The reality is that those in the FBI are all too human, including in the ambition department.

That is recounted in the classic about notorious criminal Whitey Bulger. The book is "Black Mass." Written by Dick Lehr and Gerald O'Neill, it captures an ethos is which strategies and tactics are heavy with FBI personal self interest.

For example, FBI agent John Connolly ups his status by bagging Bulger as a confidential informant. That transaction is not a "pure" one. Not long after Bulger agreed to be a snitch, he committed his first murder. Cooperating with the FBI didn't transform the miscreant into a player who respected the norms of society.

Of course, if ambition results in the overall greater good it's okay, right. More scum gets collared. The world is a bit safer.

But ambition can also open the door to over-zealous pursuit of supposed law and order. Currently, the convictions of former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara have been questioned. Some, such of inside traders and Sheldon Silver, have been tossed.

But all this is well known to any 1L. From the get-go in law school the message is: The game is about winning. That's positioned and packaged as pulling out all stops to represent one's client.

Can human beings in law enforcement and prosecution/defense become more tuned in to old-fashioned tenets of what constitutes "character?" In my personal essay for college back in early 1960s, I had to discuss issues relating the character. At the time, I believed those were important. Now? I just don't know.

07/17/2017

But "serious people" weren't allowed to take popular culture seriously.

Those "serious people" included college students in Humanities courses, doctoral students writing dissertations, executives in corporations making speeches and publishing books and lawyers arguing cases in court.

That was then. Actually it wasn't so long ago.

In the early 1980s, scholar Stuart Hall introduced the subject of popular culture in a lecture at the University of Illinois. In The New Yorker, Hua Hsu chronicles that revolution. Essentially it entailed pop culture's being classified and treated as "culture." Hall's lecture opened the door to "cultural studies."

The front lines of that disruption were scholars whose backgrounds were blue collar. They recognized that what they had experienced growing up was indeed culture.

Now, college students take courses studying the aggregate pop culture or bits and pieces such as how women are portrayed in the mass media.

Sure, there are doctoral dissertations on such matters, which at one time weren't considered worth scholarly investigation.

The speeches and articles we wrote for Lee Iacocca during the Chrysler turnaround were jam packed with pop culture references. In addition, Iacocca was the first corporate leader to use the language of the street, such as "coulda" and "shoulda."

And, even judges use pop culture to make a point in their written opinions. Here, Kathryn Rubino at Abovethelaw.com describes how Ninth Circuit Judge John Owens leveraged a reference to "Raiders of the Lost Ark." That was in his concurrence for the case of "U.S. v. Perez-Silvan."

Is the current challenge for Millennials and Gen Zers to experience and appreciate what used to be classified as "high culture?"

My Millennial clients have neither read nor seen a play by William Shakespeare. To fulfill "that kind of requirement" in college they took an American Studies or Womens Studies course.

No Bach or Beethoven comes through their doors or windows in this 400-unit complex.

Unless they had gone to art school, many have developed no interest in the visual art movements over the centuries.

I wonder, though: Had I not invested so many years in academia involved in the study of English Literature and the History of Ideas, would I even care about those artifacts of so-called high culture?

I have a hunch the answer is "no." The characters in "Criminal Minds" and in the film "Manchester By the Sea" are the entities which help me interpret my little world.

07/09/2017

The promotions for "Sunday Night" have a glam Megyn Kelly with a big smile. (Along with the prom night curls).

All wrong.

Lester Holt, who was in her slot last week with "Dateline," is all gravitas. These are not normal times. We viewers demand a serious persona from our on-air personalities in the news and commentary niches.

Why Kelly persists with the all-smiles is puzzling.

After all, after law school, she had done law at the BigLaw firm Jones Day. That law firm has developed the signature of being totally purpose-driven in serving the client. Each and every one is dealing with a serious issue.

Jones Day remains among the few law firms with low client churn. Also, it managed to catapult a double-digit number of lawyers into the White House. That's influence and power, which it can leverage indirectly into new business development.

For tonight's "Sunday Night" episode, the promo is for how girls lose confidence. That is a very serious issue. In a STEM-driven economy the U.S. needs those females to have the self-assurance to do STEM. Yet, Kelly is all-smiles.

As successful female professionals know, yes, it's important to have empathy. Be warm. Be accessible. But we veer clear of the constant smiling.

Last Friday, two former googlers (as Google employees are called) presented to Shark Tank.

Their startup used the paid subscription model for an educational product for kids.

Monthly in snail mail comes a coding lesson positioned and packaged with Crayola-like graphic excitement. The price point for each monthly subscription ranges from $20 go $40. The subscription can be cancelled at any time.

The sharks didn't fund the venture. The main reason for the rejection didn't seem to be the paid subscription model. Rather the googlers seemed to lack business skills. The one offer they received they quibbled about and the shark swam away.

But those of us who are assessing the paid subscription business model wondered if the googlers were handling the paid-subscription model right and, more on point, should that have been how they intended to generate the lion's share of revenue, at least right now.

Entrepreneur reports the positives on the subscription model. Recent earnings show that the New York Times Inc. is faring better in revenue because of its paid digital subscriptions.

But, the Entrepreneur article also hammers that those using it must structure it right and keep adapting it. A failure on that end had been Blockbuster.

On tech online panel show "Gillmor Gang," the experts argue about paid subscriptions. For instance, should Medium adopt that model or will making readers pay for access kill it off?

Recently, The Wall Street Journal Law Blog, which operates on a paid subscription basis, was shuttered. Abovehthelaw.com, which uses advertising and other kinds of profit centers, continues to thrive.

Most of us individual bloggers do not have a paywall, that is, require a paid subscription. Yet, those blogs can serve a commercial purpose. For me, they are a business development tool. Also they function as a profit center since I am a paid influencer. In addition, they provide platforms for networking.

07/03/2017

The influential Drudge Report hammers the lack of trust in the United States. That distrust includes the Trump Administration, Congress, opinion polls and the media.

That's the kind of feeling we had been told during the Cold War which the Russians had about their government. In contrast, we were informed how blessed we were to able to be able to totally trust Ike - and God.

Currently, though, it's like we are convinced that no one is watching our back.

There are two exceptions, though: the courts and intelligence agencies.

Those are the findings of a recent survey of adults for National Public Radio and the PBS NewsHour. It was conducted by Marist College.

Here are the numbers:

61% don't trust the Trump Administration

68% don't trust Congress

68% don't trust opinion polls

68% don't trust the media.

On the other hand:

60% trust the courts

60% trust the intelligence community.

Likely the famous annual Edelman Trust Barometer will capture similar data. Here are the grim numbers for 2017.

In our personal lives there seems to be that same erosion of trust.

Professionals like myself and established social circles have hardened with their exclusivity. One can feel that when relocating to a new location. I and my neighbors appear friendly but not eager to make friends.

Do these scary times require that civilized society in the United States fill the moat with alligators and pull down the drawbridge? Looks like it.

In my eight months living in Eastern Ohio I have not made one new friend. My choice.

Instead I have returned for the gift of intimacy to old friends in Connecticut and Washington D.C. It will take plenty of observation for me to come to trust the human beings in my daily life even in small town America.